Machine for burring wool



45 only injures the fiber seriously but fre- UNITED sTATEs PATENT oriiioE.

T. MUSGRAVE, 0F LEEDS, MASSACHUSETTS, AssieNoR To ANNA L. MUSGRAVE, 'or

' NORTHAMPTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

MACHINE FOR BURRING WOOL.

To all whom if may concern.'

Be it known t-hat I, THOMAS MUSGRAVE, of Leeds, in Hampshire county,in the State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Machines for Burring l/Vool; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact descrip-V tion thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making part of this specification, in which- Figure l, is a plan; Fig.l 2, a side elevation; and Fig. 3, a longitudinal vertical sec= tion.

The same letters indicate like parts in all the figures of the said drawing.

The leading` object of my invention is to cleanse wool of what is known as the mestizo bur, although it will more effectually, and

. with less labor and less injury to the fiber than any other known means, cleanse wool which has other burs or other solid impurities. The mestizo bur is of peculiar structure. If opened carefully it will be found to be composed of long fibers of a hard woody substance, with shortandshard fibers projecting like barbs on the edges of the long fibers which they in part connect. And these long fibers with their barbs are rolled up in several convolutions in a snail like form embracing some of the fibers of wool which are aggregated about the bur, and which finally envelop it much in the manner of a pod of cotton fibers surrounding the seed. The Inode generally practiced of cleansing such wool is to subject it to the operation of what is known as a picker by which the fibers are torn from the burs, and then transfer it to what is known as a burring machine-and for the reason that the burring machine heretofore known could not alone efi'ectually cleanse such wool; but serious difficulties have been, and

are, experienced in the mode of treatment above referred to. The picker in tearing the fibers of wool from the mestizo bur not quently unwinds the burs, the barbs of which remain attached to the fibers; and as the fibers of wool are drawn out the long fibers of the bur, which lie along parallel with it, fail to be knocked off when passing through the burring machine. And such portions of the burs as remain attachedto the fibers when delivered from the burring machine are not removed when passing through thecard and other after processes in the manufacture, and when woven Ainto the cloth can then be felt project-ing from the surface of the cloth which is thereby depreciated in value. In addition to all this the action of the pickerl is known to be injurious to the fibers of wool generally, the fact hav-` ing long been noticed that the violent actie-n on the fibers injures their felting proper y.

My said invention relates to an improvenient on that class of burring machines in which the cylinder yis composed of a series of circular disks or equivalent construction with interposed washers having 'suflicient space between the several disks for the reception of the fibers of wool, but not sufiicient to receive the burs, the peripheries of the said disks being formed with gullets cut therein at given distances apart to catch and draw in the fibers of wool,- rotating beaters being used i`n connection therewith to knock off the burs. And in view ofthe result to be accomplished my said invention consists in combining with such burring machine another like, and more rapidly rotating burring cylinder, by means of an interposed rotating stripper so located and rotated as to draw out the sliver, as it may be termed, in taking the fibers of wool from the first burring cylinder and transferring them to the second burring cylinder by which latter operation they are still farther drawn out and then subjected to a second and final burring operation to cleanse the fibers of all foreign substances not removed by the first.

In theaceompanying drawings a, represents the frame which may be of any suitable construct-ion, and b a burring cylinder such as have been extensively used for some years past by woolen manufacturers, and composed of a series of circular disks placed on a shaft with their washers interposed between the several disks-suitable gullets being cut into the periphery of the several. disks.

The wool to be burred is placed on the usual feeding apron which passes around the rollers c c, Vand thence the wool is taken by a pair of feed rollers d Z and by them presented to the burring cylinder b by which it is taken, the fibers drawn into the gullets and between the several disks, whilev the burs project beyond the periphery of the cylinder where, by the operation of the rotating beaters e, the burs are gradually rolled out of the fibers of wool and knocked off, the said beaters being rotated by suitable gearing in the directions indicated by the several arrows.

Back of the burring cylinder Z) is Placed a rotating stripper f clothed with card teeth in the usual manner of a card stripper. The periphery of this stripper moves faster than that of the burring cylinder and draws the fibers of wool out of the burring cylinder, and in drawing them out and stretching them brings the small impurities, such as the barbed fiber of the mestizo bur, which may have been opened, and then transfers them to a second burring cylinder g, constructed like the one b, and which rotates at a higher velocity than the rst, and by which the fibers of wool are t-aken, drawn into the gullets and between the several disks, but leaving outside of the periphery such impurities as were concealed in the fiber or in thegullets and between the several disks of the first burring cylinder. The fibers thus taken by the 4burring cylinder g are carried up to the action of rotating beaters 7L, similar to those before described, which knock off the remaining foreign substances, leaving the fibers in a thoroughly cleansed state, and then they are drawn out of the burring cylinder by a rotating wire brush or other stripper z'. In this way I am enabled i not only to dispense entirely with the use of a picker, but the fibers of wool are more thoroughly stripped of all burs, or-parts of burs and other solid impurities, than they can be by any other known means.

The same result could not be accomplished by 'simply using two burring machines in succession to operate on the wool, because in taking the fibers delivered from the first machine and placing them 'on the feed apron of the second machine the fibers would lose j,

that distended condition in which they are when leaving the burring cylinderwthey could not be placed on the second feed apron in the same regular order in which they left the first cylinder, and in passing between the feed rollers by which they would be presented to the burring cylinder of the second machine, small particles of the mestizo bur, and of other hard substance, would become mashed down and buried between the several fibers of wool to such an extent as to pass entirely out of the reach of the beaters. But by the drawing operation which takes place on'the fibers in my improved machine in drawing them from the burring cylinder and transferring them to the second burring cylinder the small particles above referred to are loosened from the fibers and brought to the surface so as to project from the periphery of the second burring cylinder to be removed by the beaters. And besides it will be seen that by the combination above described the fibers are more readily and with less labor transferred from thc first burring cylinder to the sec-ond, than they could from one burring machine to another.

I do not claim the construction of the burring cylinder, or strippers, or beater, nor thel combination of beaters or strippers with a burring cylinder. But

What I do claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent is- The combination of the second burring cylinder and its beaters, substantially as herein described, with the'first burring cylinder and its beaters, substantially as de scribed, by means of an interposed stripper, or an equivalent therefor, as described.

THOMAS MUSGRAVE.

Witnesses:

' WM. H. BISHOP, l 'HORACE ANDREWS. 

